STAISI^DLEY TEEES AND SHRUBS OF MEXICO. 829 



Styles wholly united, stout, short, included; tree with a thick, columnar, 

 usually simple trunk; corolla yellow 1. IDRIA. 



Styles free at apex, slender, exserted ; shrubs or trees with branched trunks ; 

 corolla usually red 2. FOUQUIERIA. 



1. IDRIA Kellogg, Hesperian 4: 101. 1860. 

 A single species is known. 



1. Idria columnaris Kellogg, Hesperian 4: 101. 1860. 



Fouquieria columnaris Kellogg ; Curran, Bull. Calif. Acad. 1 : 133. 1885. 



Fouquieria gigantea Orcutt, West Amer. Sci. 2: 48. 1886. 



Baja California ; type locality, Sebastian Bay. 



Trunk 3 to 18 meters high, tapering from base to apex, with numerous slen- 

 der lateral branches, these leafy, covered with slender spines 2 to 3.5 cm. long ; 

 leaves oblanceolate or obovate, 1.5 to 2 cm. long ; flowers in large panicles 

 borne at the summit of the trunk, nearly sessile, 12 to 14 mm. long; sepals 4 

 mm. long, rounded; corolla G to 7 mm. long; stamens 10; capsule 8 to 10 mm. 

 long. " Cirio." 



This is one of the most curious and remarkable plants of Baja California, 

 because of its weird appearance and strange habit of growth. It grows on 

 sandy flats and rocky hills at low altitudes, and in many places is abundant, 

 forming regular forests. The trunks sometimes send forth a few large erect 

 branches above the middle ; at the base they are often nearly a meter in di- 

 ameter. The older trees frequently become topheavy and lop over, thus as- 

 suming fantastic forms. The wood is soft and spongy. The trunks are often 

 hollow, and sometimes inhabited by bees. For illustrations of the plant see 

 Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 16: p?. 121, 122. 



The following account of the tree by Clavlgero (Historia de la California, 

 1789) is doubtless the first published description of it: "Much more curious 

 is another tree, called by the CochimI milapd, which is common from the 

 twenty-ninth to the thirty-first degree, and had not been seen by the mission- 

 aries before the year 1751, for they had not entered that part of the country ; 

 nor is it, as I believe, known even yet among naturalists. It is so large that 

 It rises perpendicularly to a height of 70 feet ; its trunk, proportionately thick, 

 is not woody but soft and juicy, like the branches of the pitahayo and cordon; 

 its branches are certain twigs, a foot and a half long, adorned with small 

 leaves and with a spine at the tip ; the direction of the branches is not upward 

 or horizontal, like those of most trees, but they hang down like beard from 

 tip to the base of the trunk, and upon them are bunches of flowers, but no 

 fruit has ever been seen. This great tree is of no use, for even when dry It 

 is not good for fuel ; nevertheless, in the mission of San Francisco de Borja 

 they used to bum it for lack of other firewood." 



2. FOUQUIERIA II. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 3: 452. 1819. 



Spiny shrubs or trees, with a distinct trunk, or often dividing at the base 

 into slender erect branches, leafless for most of the year ; flowers usually red, 

 spicate or paniculate ; corolla cylindric or campanulate, the tube equaling or 

 longer than the lobes ; stamens 10 to 15. 



The following species are the only ones known. 



Leaves nearly linear, 2 to 3 mm. wide 1. F. purpusii. 



Leaves oblong to broadly obovate, usually more than 5 mm. wide. 

 Corolla tube campanulate, little if at all exceeding the lobes. 



Capsule about 2 cm. long; filaments not appendaged 2. F. burragel. 



Capsule 1 to 1.5 cm. long; filaments appendaged 3. F. fasciculata. 



